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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Tristram Shandy
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(The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman 1759–67) Novel by Laurence *Sterne – the most deliberately chaotic and, for those who find their way into it, one of the most endearing books in the English language. It is Tristram's autobiography and it begins, unusually but logically, with the scene at his conception.
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Thereafter, in a series of looping digressions, Sterne brings vividly to life the hero's learned father; his good-hearted Uncle Toby (who shares with his servant, Corporal Trim, an obsession with military fortifications); the neighbouring Widow Wadman, who has sexual designs on Toby; the grossly incompetent family physician, Dr Slop; and Yorick, the opinionated parson in whom Sterne partly satirized himself. The book ends only because Sterne wrote no more of it. It is in many ways two centuries ahead of its time, resembling a modern demolition of the very idea of the novel (itself then a relatively new form).
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